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Golden Baggers

The Golden Baggers food-growing project started in 2010 with 20 one-tonne builder’s bags on the unused site of the former nursery playground. In 2016, the now-rotten bags were replaced with 42 solid wooden boxes, thanks to an award from the Tesco ‘Bags of Help’ scheme.

New members can initially join as Friends and after a year their name will get added to the list for a box. If you are interested, send an email to Billy Mann at goldenbaggers@gmail.com, including your postal address, email and telephone number. Annual subs are currently £5 for Friends and £20 for box holders.

During the growing season there are montlhly Social Sundays and plenty of other opportunity to get involved in social events including Open Gardens and the Baggers annual trip. Here's some photos form the latest outing to Turn End home and gardens.

If you send an email to goldenbaggers@gmail.com, including you POSTAL ADDRESS, PREFFERRED EMAIL CONTACT and PREFERRED TELEPHONE CONTACT we can put you on the list. In the meantime, you might like to consider joining the project as a 'Friend', which costs £5 a year, for which you will be invited to all events and sent mailshots regarding upcoming activities.

Hi, I would like to join the allotment waiting list too if possible. I am trying to grow roses from the bush that used to look so nice outside Bernard Morgan House. I have 40 seeds that I am trying to germinate. If one works, I would love to give it to the estate!

Newly elected Cripplegate Councillor Sue Pearson is always happy to talk rhubarb, especially when the subject is her own contribution to that trusty filler of pies and crumbles.

Sue’s rhubarb has a life story. It sits today in a quiet corner of the Golden Baggers allotment, but the road it took to get here is a story in itself, a kind of rhubarb version of Who Do You Think You Are? It was born and raised in Wales by Sue’s Dad. Once it reached maturity, he outsourced cuttings to his children, who grew up and left home, but took a piece of Welsh rhubarb with them wherever they went. And from that day on, the hobo life of the plant began.

The muscular red beauty you see in the pot against the east wall of the allotment has journeyed with Cllr Pearson from Wales to Wilmslow and Derbyshire before it found its present home here on Golden Lane. It is clearly a survivor. The number of tarts it has parented is unknown, but please feel free to speculate. If​ you need any proof of its health and fertility, gently push back those big green leaves and check out the silky stems. Awesome.

Tesco has teamed up with Groundwork to launch its Bags of Help initiative in hundreds of regions across England and Wales. The scheme will see three community groups and projects in each of these regions awarded grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag charge.

Bags of Help offers community groups and projects in each of Tesco’s 390 regions across the UK a share of revenue generated from the five pence charge levied on single-use carrier bags. The public will now vote in store from 27 February until 6 March on who should receive the £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 awards.

Hi Thanks Christine. I'm wondering if the Gardening Group are giving any consideration to the disposal of gardening 'rubbish' or whether they prefer we make our own, individual arrangements? We still have a few weeks to go before they seal off the balconies but it would be good to know which way it's going. Thanks.

Hi In relation to all the balconies being cleared. Some people will want to keep their plants and reinstate them at the end of the current works. However, some people will want to dispose of theirs for whatever reason eg they can't cope with them any more or, as in my case, their plants are under attack by a worm like creature that is eating the leaves and making them all sticky. Spraying/washing the leaves hasn't stopped the problem.

1. Are plants useful for composting? 2. Is used soil useful for anything? 3. How best can we arrange for unwanted plants to be disposed of? Maybe an accessible collection point can be allocated for the plants if useful for composting purposes. No doubt a dedicated bin will be needed on the estate to dispose of other waste such as soil. I have mentioned this to the Corporation of London guy but thought it might be practical to know what best to do ahead of the day the balcony is blocked off!

Edible Golden Lane allotments are thriving. This year at Open Gardens Weekend five hundred people visited the forty growing bags hidden behind the Ralph Perrin Centre. Pictures here illustrate the thriving allotments and two key new assets, the composter and the recently installed butt designed to save rain water from the roof of the Ralph Perrin Centre.